ALFA ROMEO
6C & Giulietta

Differing automotive tastes converged for father and son team, Joe and Andrew Wilson, with the discovery and pursuit of an Alfa Romeo 6C Freccia d’Oro. One a devout Alfa man, the other a lover of unusual, eclectic motor vehicles.

For Joe, it all started as a keen six-year-old holding a lead light for his father as he worked on the family Austin 10. As soon as Joe left school, he purchased his first vintage car, a 1923 Morris for the princely sum of four pounds. “It was located down the coast. No trailers or anything, we just towed it home with a rope.”

Joe restored the Morris and sold it for 90 quid and then bought a 1923 Vauxhall. That, like every other car to this day, was stored and restored under the family home. “That’s where Andrew picked it up,” says Joe. “I used to just come home and go under the house and work with Dad till all hours,” recalls Andrew.

“He could gas weld by the time he was 12 and he can really drive them too. Most of those old cars have really difficult gearboxes, which we enjoy.” Andrew nods in agreement. “Andrew could master those tricky old gearboxes in two minutes.”

“But there is only so much room under the house so, by virtue of logistics and economics, something’s gotta go to make way for the next one. I don’t have sentiments like Andrew,” says Joe. “He’s got too many bloody cars!” They both laugh.

Joe’s ethos and lack of sentiment has enabled an amazing progression of vehicles to pass through the family home over the last 59 years. Including a 1920 Silver Ghost Rolls-Royce Joe acquired from a friend in 1978. “That was a bit shabby,” says Joe. He restored the Ghost on the go, never having it off the road for more than six weeks. “It was a fabulous car. I took it to a rally at Coffs Harbour in about 1984. A fella had turned up in a Le Mans three-litre Bentley. By the end of the weekend, we had swapped cars.”